Organizando para la conciencia-en-acción

RESOLUTION
INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF WOMEN AGAINST MILITARISM
IN SUPPORT OF THE RELEASE OF PUERTO RICAN POLITICAL PRISONER: Oscar López Rivera

8th Gathering of the International Network of Women Against Militarism: “Forging Nets for Demilitarization and Genuine Security”
Countries/Regions represented: Philippines, Guahan, Japan, Hawaii, South Korea, Okinawa, Puerto Rico and United States

February 19-25, 2012 – San Juan, Puerto Rico

Introduction:

The International Women’s Network Against Militarism started in 1997 when some 40 women activists, policy-makers, teachers and students from South Korea, Okinawa, mainland Japan, the Philippines and the United States gathered to share information and to strategize together about the negative effects of U.S. military operations in all our countries. Since then, women from Puerto Rico, Hawai’i and Guahan (Guam) have joined the Network. We recognize Puerto Rico, Guahan, Hawai’i, and Okinawa as sovereign nations.

In all our communities, militarism jeopardizes people’s opportunities to live in sustainable ways. Despite our very different locations, we face many similar issues: distorted national budget priorities due to high levels of military spending, military violence against women/human trafficking, health effects of environmental contamination caused by preparations for war, the challenges of base conversion to civilian uses, and the everyday militarization of our societies. In the United States (including Guahan, Hawai’i, and Puerto Rico), low-income communities face aggressive military recruiting and inadequate services due to inflated military budgets at the expense of socially useful programs. Learning from each other’s situations, we analyze these issues in terms of gender, race, class and nation. Part of our work is to redefine security, especially for women and children. This year, our 15 year together as a Network, we met at Puerto Rico, February 19–25, 2012, to share strategies, information and further our collaboration.

WHEREAS, Oscar López Rivera has served close to 31 years in United States prisons for his commitment to the independence of Puerto Rico;

WHEREAS, along with 14 other men and women in the early 1980’s, he was convicted of seditious conspiracy and related offenses, but neither he nor any of his co-defendants was convicted of harming or killing anyone;

WHEREAS, in 1999 as a result of an international human rights campaign, President Bill Clinton determined that their sentences were disproportionately lengthy and offered to commute their sentences after they had served 16 to 20 years behind bars. Most accepted and
were released in 1999. However, under the terms of the offer to López Rivera, he would have had to serve an additional ten years with good conduct in prison. He did not accept the offer, as the president did not include all of his co-defendants, and, given his experience in prison, he felt his jailers would not allow him to successfully complete the conditions;

WHEREAS, had he accepted, he would have been released in September of 2009, given that he has successfully completed the conditions;

WHEREAS, he is now the only one of the 1980’s pro-independence prisoners remaining in prison, while all of his co-defendants are living productive, exemplary, law-abiding lives, fully integrated into civil society;

WHEREAS, the U.S. Parole Commission recently denied parole, ordering that he serve an additional 15 years in prison, which would mean serving 45 years in prison for politically motivated offenses where no one was hurt and no one killed;

WHEREAS, he is a 68 year old Vietnam veteran, who in an additional 15 years would be 83 years old;

WHEREAS, support for his immediate release comes from virtually the entire civil society of Puerto Rico, from the Puerto Rico Bar Association to the Ecumenical and Interreligious Coalition of Puerto Rico (which includes every religious denomination) to elected officials across party lines, including many, like the representative of the almost 4 million people of Puerto Rico in the U.S. Congress, who ardently supports his release, despite personally favoring statehood and opposing independence;

WHEREAS, support also includes several members of the U.S. House of Representatives; prominent personalities, civic and religious leaders throughout the U.S.; elected officials, including from New York, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois; international figures from Haiti, Mexico, and Australia; as well as Puerto Rican and Latino communities throughout the United States;

WHEREAS, the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization has adopted resolutions annually, as recently as 2010, calling on the President of the United States to release López Rivera.

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED:
* that the International Network of Women Against Militarism calls on the President of the United States to exercise his Constitutional power of pardon, and to grant immediate and
unconditional release to Oscar López Rivera;
* International Network of Women Against Militarism send this Resolution to the President of the United States, to convey its sentiments directly to the person in whom this Constitutional power rests.

Dated: February 23 , 2012
San Juan, Puerto Rico

Signatures of Participants International Women’s Network Against Militarism